Sānmì chāo liàojiǎn 三密抄料簡
Critical Examination of the Three-Mysteries Compendium by 覺超 (撰)
About the work
A two-fascicle critical-examination supplement to KR6t0097 (Tāizàng sānmì chāo), by Kakuchō 覺超 (960–1034). The work addresses disputed points of interpretation in the Garbha-realm Three-Mysteries practice that arose in Kakuchō’s teaching after the main compendium was issued — corrections, clarifications, and detailed responses to specific points of confusion. The header carries one of the most explicit gōhō (esoteric-restriction) statements in the corpus: “Composed exclusively for self-practice, stealthily expressing my foolish thoughts. The dread of hidden-and-manifest [judgments] is incalculable. Only for fellow students. Among those who have received the great-method consecration: knowing wrongs, one must correct them — no need to fear. Not permitted to outsiders or beginning students.”
Abstract
Authorship. Kakuchō (confirmed by manuscript-transmission). Date. As KR6t0097, 990–1034 CE.
The work proceeds as a series of question-and-answer items addressing specific procedural disputes in the Garbha-realm liturgy:
Question 1: “Regarding this ritual-manual’s textual division — what is the proper analysis?” Answer: “Briefly divide it into three: (1) the offering-assembly (供養會), from the opening text to the explanation of the great praise; (2) the triple-stratified maṇḍala / Triple-Part assemblies (三重曼荼羅三部諸會); (3) the placement-of-letters / eight-petal *and so on (布字八葉等).”
Question 2: “What textual proof grounds this three-fold division?” Answer: [detailed citations from the Mahāvairocanasūtra and its commentary].
Subsequent questions address: the placement-of-the-altar; the offering-substance arrangement; the proper sequence of deity-invocations; the mantra recitation cadences and breath-control technique; the visualization of the four-seal-Buddhas; the resolution of variants between the Yi-xíng commentary and the Inconceivable-Meaning commentary; the ācārya-certificate procedural variations.
The work bears a transmission colophon: “Jōkyō 2, yi-yi [1685 CE], 4th month, 24th day. Collation complete. Scribe: Shūenbō 秀圓坊*.*”
The work is the canonical Tosotsu-dani lineage’s authoritative resolution of disputed points in the Garbha-realm liturgy and was widely consulted in subsequent medieval and Edo Tendai esoteric teaching.
Translations and research
- No complete Western-language translation located.
- Misaki Ryōshū 三崎良周, Taimitsu no kenkyū (Tokyo: Sōbunsha, 1988).